'The Walking Dead' finally teases its next villain

Warning: There are spoilers ahead if you haven't watched the mid-season finale of "The Walking Dead."

Right now, Rick and his gang have a horde of zombies to worry about in Alexandria, but pretty soon they'll have an even bigger threat to combat. 

If you tuned away from AMC too soon after "The Walking Dead," you may have missed the tease of the next big villain.

During the first commercial break for AMC's "Into the Badlands," the series following "The Walking Dead," a two-minute preview for next year's first new episode of "The Walking Dead" debuted showing Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham stopped by a motorcycle gang. 

The gang asked the trio to get out of their vehicle and told them that everything they think belongs to them now belongs to Negan.

Ladies and gentleman, say hello to your new favorite big bad villain of the series. 

We didn't see Negan yet, but just the mention of his name on screen confirms two things. 1. He's definitely coming soon. 2. How to pronounce the villain's name once and for all. (It's Knee-gan.)

AMC recently cast Jeffrey Dean Morgan in the fan-favorite role. 

So who is Negan and who are these tough-looking scoundrels patrolling around?

If you're familiar with the comics, you'll recognize the motorcycle gang as "The Saviors," a ragtag group of violent survivors. The head of their pack, as suggested, is Negan, a vengeful man who reigns over the few remaining communities and survivors of the zombie apocalypse. He sets his men out to find more survivors and then takes a good share of their belongings as a tax to protect them from any zombie threats. He has a ridiculously foul mouth (every other word out of him is the f-bomb), and he has an equally wicked sense of humor to match.

The rumor is we'll see Negan by the season six finale. 

The only problem is how AMC will get around Negan's favorite word. 

A look at AMC's story sync, an online companion to "The Walking Dead" episodes, we may have a hint. 

If you were a bit bummed by the lack of deaths and action on Sunday night's mid-season finale of "The Walking Dead," the announcement of Negan's arrival almost makes up for it. 

Fans certainly thought so.

One fan put together a pretty cool poster hinting at Negan's weapon of choice, a bat covered in barbed wire called Lucille. 

"The Walking Dead" will return to AMC February 14, 2016.

If you missed the scene, you can check it out below.

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